Exelon Energy officials say they’ve traced a power failure at a nuclear reactor in northern Illinois to an electrical insulator in a switchyard.

The insulator failed and fell off Monday morning, causing one of the reactors at the Byron Generating Station to shut down automatically, company spokesman Paul Dempsey says.

The bad insulator will be sent to a lab for analysis and officials hope to replace it by Tuesday evening. It’s unclear how soon before the reactor could return to service.

Steam containing low levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, is being vented to reduce pressure within the reactor. But federal and plant officials say the levels are safe for workers and the public. The plant is 95 miles northwest of Chicago.

Continuing the Discussion

[…] and fell off in the electrical equipment at Byron Nuclear Plant. Chicago Tribune reported that an insulator in the switchyard failed then fell off causing the unit to lose all offsite power. The insulator may be replaced by some time Tuesday. No estimate on returning offsite power or a […]

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The Atomic Age is an ongoing project that aims to cultivate critical and reflective intervention regarding nuclear power and weapons. We provide daily news updates on the issues of nuclear energy and weapons, primarily though not exclusively in English and Japanese via RSS, Twitter, and Facebook. If you would like to receive updates in English only, subscribe to this RSS.

Additional Notes / 謝辞

The artwork in the header, titled "JAPAN:Nuclear Power Plant," is copyright artist Tomiyama Taeko.

The photograph in the sidebar, of a nuclear power plant in Byron, Illinois, is copyright photographer Joseph Pobereskin (http://pobereskin.com/)

This website was designed by the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Chicago, and is administered by Masaki Matsumoto, Graduate Student in the Masters of Arts Program for the Social Sciences, the University of Chicago.

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